Chapter 5

“Is that all you’re taking?”

Lynn’s face matched the tone of her voice and also the arms stretched out to her sides, an expression of incredulity.

I shrugged and looked in the trunk at the two plastic bags and a couple of taped up boxes. There were two suitcases in the backseat but those were Lynn’s. “Yeah, well, like you said, I shouldn’t be dwelling on the past.” I slammed the trunk closed and walked around to the driver’s door.

“There must be more than that, some keepsakes, or something,” Lynn said.

“Nope, I gave some of my stuff to friends and threw the rest of the crap away. All Mom and Dad’s stuff is still in there,” I waved at the house, the only home I’d ever known.

“You’re not going to stay and sort through it?” Lynn sounded understanding with barely a hint that she was pissed off.

“Nope. You want to sell the place, so sell it.” I didn’t try to hide the fact that I was pissed off.

“Tyson, you know it’s for the best. We’ve been over this.”

“I know, Sis. I know I’ve got to get out of here, it’s just that, it’s just...”

Lynn stepped close and threw her arms around me, tears in her eyes. “Oh, Ty,” she cried, hugging me tight and starting to cry.

“Don’t, Sis. You’ll get me started,” I patted her back and stroked her hair.

Lynn drew back, smiled, sniffed, and bravely wiped the tears from her eyes. “Right, you’re right.” She took a big breath. “Ok, then.”

“Look, how about I go have my last burger here and you take a look inside and see if there’s anything you really want to save. If there is, I’ll help you go through it.”

“No, Ty. I’ve already been through everything. I was just surprised there wasn’t more that you wanted.”

“Just those two boxes. The rest is just furniture and stuff,” I said.

“Okay, then. Let’s go have that last burger together.” Lynn started around the front of the car.

“You’re not really going break down and ruin three years of work, are you?” I laughed.

“One burger isn’t going to kill me,” Lynn laughed back.

My sister had had a hard time shedding the weight she gained after her second child. The first hadn’t been difficult. She had been careful about what she ate and exercised throughout her pregnancy but with the second, she just couldn’t find the time or energy with another kid to look after. She had gained a lot more and hadn’t lost it, not until recently, that is. Now, she looked great. She wasn’t much heavier than she’d been in college, maybe even lighter than she was in high school. She was a pretty good-looking thirty-three year old, especially one that had two kids in school. In fact, the maturity wrought from bearing children made her even better looking, more appealingly feminine than before. Motherhood had been kind to my sister.

I got in the car. Lynn was snapping the seat belt shut. Even her breasts were better, I thought, noting how the belt separated her breasts as it crossed her chest. They were larger than before but I supposed that was to be expected after two children.

“I’ll drop you at the airport after the burger,” I said, “and then get going.”

I backed the car out onto the road.

“I’m coming with you,” Lynn said.

“You’re coming with me? It will take two or three days to get there.”

“I’m not in a rush.”

A car honked its horn and swerved around us. I ignored him instead of offering my normal salute.

“What about your ticket?”

“What about it?”

“Can you get a refund?”

“I’m not worried about it.” Lynn said. “You better get going before you get a ticket.”

“What about the kids?”

“What about them?”

“Don’t you have to get back to look after them?”

“Rosita will look after them. Quit stalling and get the show on the road.”

I got the car moving. I knew better than to argue with Lynn once she had made up her mind. I knew what she was doing. She was worried about me and wanted to make sure I made it to her place and didn’t wander off somewhere which is what I had intended to do. What the hell. I’d take my sister for a nice relaxing drive for a few days, avoiding the interstate as much as possible, stay at her place for a week or so, and then bugger off.

I sat reminiscing about the afternoon’s drive. The TV was on and I appeared to be watching it but I wasn’t. I was more aware of the sound of the shower than what the talking heads were saying. That was a great burger. I hoped there would be somewhere they could make something half decent in West Palm Beach; not great, just something more than passable. That burger had been the start of a very nice afternoon. After that, we blew out of town in my baby, a rebuilt, red with black stripe and black leather interior ‘68 Camaro hardtop that ran like it was brand new. Quite a few miles had gone by and we had left the interstate when Lynn rolled her window down and shook her hair out in the passing wind.

“I can’t believe you still have this thing,” she yelled over the wind and the roar of the engine. “It used to be such a piece of shit.”

“It’s been completely rebuilt, a frame-up restoration,” I yelled back.

I started to itemize the work I’d put into it over the years, the time and dollars spent always a bone of contention with my girlfriend, but Lynn smiled and turned away, uninterested. I rolled my window down too and turned the music up so we could hear it. Lynn’s head nodded with the beat and her hand tapped the top of the door. “Yeah,” she said.

Some miles down the road, Lynn looked less the harried young mother and more the attractive young woman she was despite her conservative dress. The tension had drained from her face and her whole body seemed to be more fluid though she was just gazing out the window. Lynn kicked off her shoes and lifted her feet up to brace them on the dash on either side of the glove box. Her loose skirt skidded down her thighs and Lynn trapped it, pushing the extra material between her legs. She turned to look at me and I quickly looked back at the road.

“Do you mind?” she asked, nodding at her bare feet on my dash.

“It’s cool,” I answered.

Lynn turned back to the scenery and a few seconds later I did too. I had forgotten how nice Lynn’s legs were. Whenever I thought of her, I always remembered her breasts, those gorgeous things I had seen so fleetingly years ago. Sometimes, I had to admit, I had pictured them when I was huffing and puffing over my ex-girlfriend and several women before that. However, I hadn’t done that since the birth of Lynn’s second child. She had kind of let herself go during her second pregnancy. Looking at those legs now, that was clearly well behind her and I knew I would be dreaming about her tonight.

It wasn’t just because Lynn had shed weight. Lynn had a nice body, again, true, but the problem really lay in how much she looked like Mom when she was in her thirties, a time when my voice changed, I shaved for the first time and, yes, I almost wore out my cock masturbating. I thought that was a teenage thing then but I still did it, a lot.

Despite my objections, Lynn refused to stay in a cheap motel. She booked us in as Mr. and Mrs. Thompson.

“It’s easier,” she explained as we rode the elevator up to our room.

The room was large and expensively decorated. The two king-sized beds were each fronted with flat screen TVs. I went straight to the minibar but Lynn picked up the phone and asked, “What do you want? I’m having wine.”

I said that I’d go for that too. What the hell, there was no reason for me to be an impolite guest.

“For the tip,” Lynn said, handing me a ten. “I’m going to freshen up.”

“I can afford a tip,” I said, refusing to take it.

“Suit yourself,” she said, dropping the ten on the bed and brushing past me to the bathroom.

After she closed the door, I changed my mind. When the guy arrived, I directed him to put the wine and glasses on the table between the beds and gave him a five. I grabbed a beer from the minibar, kicked off my shoes, and settled in to watch some TV.

Lynn was in the bathroom for quite a while. When she finally emerged, she had one towel wrapped around her body and another piled on her head covering her hair.

“What are you watching?” she asked, sitting on the edge of her bed nearest mine.

“Football,” I answered, as if it wasn’t obvious.

Lynn swung her legs up on the bed and settled back into the pillows. It wasn’t long before I lost my focus on the game. The distraction was Lynn smoothing lotion down her lower legs and onto her feet, and then touching up the polish on her nails with a little brush. She asked questions about the game like she used to do, only now I didn’t think she was doing it to be annoying. I think she really wanted to talk to me.

“Oh shit,” Lynn suddenly exclaimed. “We forgot about the wine.”

I nodded and waved my beer bottle at the wine.

“You’re having beer? I can’t drink a whole bottle of wine by myself,” she complained.

“No problem, “ I said, tipping up my bottle and finishing it.

I poured us both a glass and Lynn got me talking about the old days during half-time. I muted the TV and didn’t notice when the game started up again. Lynn leaned across several times to clink glasses which rewarded me with a view of the upper part of the breasts I used to fantasize about, except now they were bigger, like Mom’s. I noticed by the third quarter that I had forgotten about the game but by then I didn’t care. Lynn mostly looked straight ahead as she talked, which allowed me to admire her legs and to really take in how much she looked like Mom. After a while, I just enjoyed listening to her voice.

As I refilled our glasses, Lynn got up and told me to close my eyes, which I did. I heard the towels falling to the floor but kept my eyes closed tight. After a lot of rustling, Lynn told me I could open my eyes again. I handed her a glass of wine and she thanked me for being a gentleman.

“I’m not a kid anymore,” I responded, thinking about that day I had burst in to find her topless.

“No, I guess not,” Lynn replied wistfully.

We drank that glass more quickly than the first but with fewer clinks which was too bad because it was awkward for Lynn to keep the bed covers pressed to her chest as she leaned across and there was always the chance of an accident. Well, I suppose that wouldn’t have been a good thing, really. It probably would have just embarrassed us both. I knew it would embarrass me. Still, I couldn’t stop thinking that Lynn was naked lying in the bed next to mine.

While I poured the third and final glass, Lynn pulled her knees up under the cover and leaned forward, ruffling her hair. Positioned the way I was, I could see her entire naked back and the side of her left breast jiggling as she shook out her hair. Lynn’s narrow waist dipped in under her breast and then flared out to her hips and buttocks. I spilled the wine, overflowing her glass.

“Hey, keep your eye on the job, buddy,” Lynn laughingly admonished me.

I was wrong. I wasn’t embarrassed. The casual way my sister handled catching me cruising her body made it all part of brother-sister banter, like in the old days. I felt quite relaxed as I handed her the glass and then poured my own. We took up our conversation where we left off and talked long after the wine was gone.

Eventually, we decided to hit the sack and turned off the lights. We hadn’t closed the curtains so the room was dimly lit by the ambient lights of the city below. I went to the bathroom to wash up and do my teeth. Lynn was lying with her covers pulled up to her neck facing my bed. I thought she would turn around when I started getting undressed but she didn’t. I stripped down to my underwear and got into bed. Her eyes were closed but I was sure I had seen a glint there while I was undressing.

During the night, Lynn got up and went to the bathroom. I watched her shadowy form go but couldn’t make out any details in the semi-darkness. After the toilet flushed, I waited with slitted eyes for her return. The gods shone on me that night as Lynn forgot to turn out the bathroom light. Her heavy breasts swayed beautifully in the gloom and I could make out a dark triangle that must have been her pubic hair.

“Damn,” she whispered, turning around to get the light.

Ah, what a lovely derriere. My brother-in-law was a lucky man.

Dale was a heart surgeon and fourteen years Lynn’s senior. This was his second marriage and second set of kids. He had missed the early years of his first set and, like many successful men his age, succumbed to the attraction of a younger woman and eagerly embraced her desire for a family, one that, this time, would be enjoyed. But the attraction often waned and Dale seemed to be following the path that had led to his first divorce — work was his primary focus.

I was surprised that Lynn hadn’t talked about her husband and kids. I hadn’t noticed it the night before but thought about it the next day while Lynn drove. Yes, I let my sister, the one whose driving I had always criticized, drive my baby. She loved it and I had to say, she looked beautiful driving my classic Camaro. They could have sold a lot of these using her in a commercial.

Somehow, Lynn didn’t look anything like the efficient mother that had arrived ten days ago to settle up the house. She seemed free as a bird as we sped down the county roads. She was gorgeous with her hair lifting from the open window and her loose dress billowing from the same wind. She had long since stopped trying to smooth it back up to her knees and let her long legs stay bare. Yep, I thought, my sister was definitely Camaro material.

“Be good,” Lynn laughed, looking over and catching my eyes running over her legs.

I was a bit amazed by how unruffled she was by my attention to her physical attributes and how little it seemed to bother me at getting caught. In fact, it seemed almost like a game. Lynn caught me several more times that day and I think she enjoyed it. She almost glowed after catching me and seemed to bask in my admiration. I think my attention was good for her, as was the glances she attracted when we stopped to eat for lunch and dinner. There was something about Lynn that made her more fun than her usual self and I think she was aware of it, and liked it. That, and the attention she garnered, probably took her back to the old days, before kids.

We shared a bottle of wine at dinner before going upstairs to our room. Lynn ordered a bottle before going in for a shower and I settled on one of the beds, queens this time and just one TV, after it arrived to browse through the movie offerings. Lynn exited the bathroom in the same garb, a towel around her body and one covering her hair. When I asked which of several chick flicks she wanted, she took the remote from me, found a football game, and tossed it back to me. I shrugged, and picked up one of the glasses. Lynn ignored hers and set about getting ready to paint her toenails.

“What color do you like, Ty?” Lynn asked, wiggling her toes at me and holding up two bottles of nail polish.

“That one,” I said, pointing to the one on the left.

“You don’t like the pink one?” she seemed disappointed.

I looked back. “That one, then,” I said, pointing to the other one.

Lynn smiled and started painting her toes. She held them out and wiggled them once in a while, waiting for me to acknowledge their presence and to nod approvingly, which I did. I pretended it was an annoyance but, truth be told, I enjoyed it and I think Lynn knew it. I liked the way she held her leg out, the way her pretty foot curled, and the way her toes wiggled for attention. I looked over to monitor her progress a few times between the toe-wiggling and admired the muscles in Lynn’s calves and the tender underside of her left flank that was, as far as I could see, completely devoid of cellulite. If this woman wasn’t my sister, I would be all over her in a flash.

Lynn finished her toes and flaunted them in front of me but I pretended to me more interested in the game. She got up from her bed and circled around to the end of mine, then sat on it blocking the TV.